The first series of the show aired on TV3 on 22 September 2008, and finished on 8 December 2008, with Brenda Shanahan as the winner. Shanahan worked at Cullen's company, Renault Ireland, on a 12-month contract worth €100,000.[1] Steve Rayner, a Business Development Manager, won the second series in 2009. That series also featured Breffny Morgan. Michelle Massey won the job in the 2010 series, while Eugene Heary won in 2011.[2] It was announced in May 2012 that the programme would not be renewed for a new series.[3][4]

Due to the success and growth of the series in 2009 it was announced that a Celebrity version of the show was being sought by the producers and TV3. The producers began the task of finding a main sponsor for the show, celebrities to take part and finally smaller sponsors of each individual task. The producers were able to find a main sponsor for the launch of the spring show and would have started production in January or February 2010, however they were unable to find sponsors of each individual task. The producers also ran into trouble finding different personalities for the show and for them to give up a month of their lives for the show. The production of the celebrity version of the show was postponed until the third series finished production in August 2010.[8]

The fourth series consists of sixteen candidates in total again this year. In the three previous series, the candidates were inititally separated into two teams based on gender. This year however, Bill split the teams into 'youth' and 'experience'. Four male and four female candidates made up the teams.

Task scope: To produce a CD and design the newspaper ad campaign, the sleeve and poster. 100,000 copies of the winning CD will be given away free with the Irish Daily Mail. Each team had to pick 10 new Irish music acts to feature on the CD. The team whose CD impresses the panel of judges the most wins.

Result: The judges were most impressed with Zest's CD and they won for the second week in a row.

Winner: Zest

Sent to boardroom: Christopher, Louise and Yinka

Fired: Yinka, for making poor decisions that adversely affected Spirit's project, and for "overseeing a disaster" in her team's position despite having management experience.[10]

Team reshuffle: Eugene and Joanne moved to Spirit, Conor moved to Zest.

Project managers: Bill appointed: Eoin (Zest) and Louise (Spirit)

Task scope: To create an app. for Uni Slim.

Result: UniSlim found Team Spirit's app to be more suitable. And chose them as this week's winners.

Winner: Spirit

Quit: Eoin, after Zest's presentation, he left the competition claiming his teammates ruined everything and couldn't handle the stress anymore.

Sent to boardroom: Sandra (deputy PM), Ruth, Claire

Fired: Ruth, for lacking assertiveness within her team that could have changed the task's outcome, and only showing it at the most inappropriate moment: during the team's pitch itself. Bill also emphasised disappointment in the assertive issue as a result of Ruth's work background requiring those character traits.[11]

Team reshuffle: Louise, Eugene and Peter move to Zest, Maurice and Claire move to Spirit.

Project managers: Noel (Zest) Claire (Spirit)

Task scope: To demonstrate and design "A Show Your Business Event" for Bank of Ireland. To source local producers and their products and set up the event in Wexford and Galway.

Result: Bank of Ireland was most impressed with Zest. They said there was "no comparison" between the two events. Zest made a profit of over €600.

Winner: Zest

Sent to boardroom: Claire, Christopher, Susanne

Fired: Claire, for limiting the scope of her team's project, and therefore its chances of success, as a result of a desire to adhere to her self-admitted "nobler motives". It is worth mentioning that before the final boardroom scene, Claire had struggled to pick two people, saying she would go back in on her own. In addition, after Claire was fired, Bill said he "wasn't done yet" and strongly implied that a double firing would take place: but eventually allowed Christopher and Susanne to return to the house.[12]

Task scope: To create an original advertising concept encouraging customers to make their homes more energy efficient with the help of B&Q. And to present the concept as a billboard, which must contain a slogan or tagline relevant to energy saving with B&Q.

Result: Spirit won the task. Though their billboard was "simple", B&Q thought Zest's was too complicated and too old-fashioned.

Winner: Spirit

Sent to boardroom: Conor, Eugene and Louise

Fired: Louise, for not showing the fighting spirit she brought to the boardroom scenarios within the tasks themselves, and for being on the losing team in the majority of the tasks involving marketing, despite her background.[13]

Team reshuffle: Susanne and Joanne move to Zest, Noel and Sandra move to Spirit.

Project managers: Eugene (Zest) Sandra (Spirit)

Task scope: To relaunch the Cadbury Dairymilk variant Caramello. To create a new packaging design for the Caramello wrapper and to develop a new print ad campaign to support the relaunch of the product.

Result: Spirit won the task. This task was based on sales. Ultimately, the team with the most sales won. Zest sold €716 worth of bars and did not make any sales in the pre-arranged meetings set by Bill. Spirit sold €16,517 before the meetings and their total profit was over €53,000! ("A boardroom record", acclaimed Bill Cullen).

Winner: Spirit

Sent to boardroom: Eugene, Conor and Peter

Fired: Peter, for showing lack of attention to detail and making a tiny yet critical error that Bill believed led to the failure of the task.[14]

Team reshuffle: Conor and Joanne move to Spirit; Sandra, Chris and Brian to move to Zest.

Project managers: Sandra (Zest) and Noel (Spirit).

Task scope: To create an event which engages the local community which recreates the magic unique to our local pub and which inspires consumers to raise Guinness together.

Result: Guinness felt that there was a 'Wow' factor standing outside the pub in Co. Cork, but although their idea needed work Guinness will sell up the 'legend' concept, so Spirit were declared the winners.

Team reshuffle: Maurice and Noel moved to Zest; Eugene moved to Spirit.

Project managers: Joanne (Spirit) and Chris (Zest)

Task scope: To create a back-of-box Kelloggs' Cornflakes fundraising campaign in aid of the National Children's Cancer Ward (St. John's Ward, Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin), along with a radio advertisement to enhance funding for social facilities targeted toward adolescent inpatients at the hospital

Result: Although the Board of Directors at Crumlin Children's Hospital deemed Spirit's radio advert "disturbing" and unnecessary, Spirit's "Walk a Mile in My Shoes" campaign concept appealed to them greatly. On the other hand, Zest's radio advert proved acceptable and quite favourable by the BOD; however, their back-of-box campaign design was considered too cluttered and more child-friendly than adolescent-appealing. The BOD also didn't quite empathise with Zest's "Starsearch" concept, and so the latter team were deemed this week's losers.

Winner: Spirit

Sent to boardroom: Chris, Noel, Maurice

Fired: Chris, primarily for being so-called "bedazzled" by Sandra during the entire task and failing to recognise her apparent faults throughout[17]

*Episode dedicated to the memory of Hannah Bryan (1996-2011, former inpatient of Our Lady's Children's Hospital Crumlin) who appeared briefly in the programme.

Task scope: To create a 30-second advertisement in order to communicate the benefits of ordering takeaway food online. It was also important that the advertisement was edgy, fun and contemporary but most importantly was that the team's personalities show throughout the advertisement

Result: While both advertisements were disappointing, Zest's was memorable for all the wrong reasons and Spirit tried to cram too much into theirs. However, Spirit were declared this week's winners by the skin of their teeth.

Winner: Spirit

Sent to boardroom: Maurice, Sandra and Noel

Fired: Sandra, for not pushing her ideas in the group strong enough and for her abrupt communication style. Although she had good oration skills, Bill felt that she hadn't shone in other areas.[18]

Task scope: The first part of the task was to sell Renault vehicles to Corporate Ireland. They had to choose three vehicles from the Renault range and convince the fleet buyers that Renault is their #1 choice for 2012. They also had to hold sales meetings with two of the leading higher drive companies and they had to host a corporate event at one of their dealerships. The second part of their challenge was to select a number of used cars, to market them through BeepBeep.ie, which was launched in 2010 by the Society of Irish Motoring Industries, to sell them and to make a profit.

Result: Spirit made a profit of €3,491,000 from their sales and so were declared this week's winner

Winner: Spirit

Sent to boardroom: Conor and Maurice

Fired: Conor, for making a bad presentation in front of the leading drive companies as well as having a poor management style. Even though Bill admired his entrepreneurial qualities and told him that he is and would make a great role model for the youth of Ireland, he saw him as a very raw talent and ready to fight for what he believes in, but decided he wasn't going to go into business with him.[19]

Task scope: The final four candidates had to undergo a series of interviews (with David Bloch, Mairead Fleming, Gavin Duffy, and Sheena Cleesey) before presenting their business ideas to a room of potential clients

Who was Sent to boardroom: All candidates

Fired first: Maurice, for proposing an unrealistic business plan that ultimately required an investment much greater than Bill was prepared to offer.

Fired second: Joanne, because of her obscure business plan that seemed too good to be true by Bill's advisors.

Who was runner-up: Noel, for having another business whilst planning to launch another, and also because Bill saw him as a "quiet man" throughout the process.

Who was hired: Eugene, for coming up with a business proposition that represented his expertise as an auctioneer.[20][21]

The 2010 series of the show began filming in July. The candidates have been spotted in locations including the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre on 9 July 2010. The Apprentice: You're Fired presented by Anton Savage, returned alongside brand new spin-off, The Apprentice: At Home featuring what has been going on in the house the contestants live together in during the competition offering further insight into their personalities and relationships. The Apprentice 2010 began on 20 September 2010 and continued for 13 weeks in total. The winner of the 2010 series was Michelle Massey.[22][23]

The third series consists of sixteen candidates in total. As with the two previous series, the candidates were inititally separated into two teams based on gender. The women chose the name 'Fusion', while the men chose the name 'Elev8'. In the first task, Bill swapped the project manager of the women's team with that of the men's before commencing the task.

Who was fired: Cahal, for poor leadership despite having prior experience and being in a leadership position within his job. Similar criticism was lobbied at Niamh H., but Bill ultimately decided to fire Cahal.[24]

Who was fired: Kieran, for being a poor team leader, for engaging in false advertising, and for bringing Ciara back into the boardroom instead of Caroline or Nagaite who closed 0 and 1 deals respectively. After the firing, Tara was given a strong warning by Bill, saying "don't ever try to bullsh*t me".[27]

Who was fired first: Ciara, for 'rubbing people up the wrong way' on the task, failing to improve her skills within a team, and for being in the final boardroom too many times.[33]

Who was fired second: Jamie, for maintaining his lack of positivity and dismissive nature throughout the tasks. Bill was also indicating he was considering firing Michelle as well, but he allowed her to stay.[33]

Task: To create a website concept for Carry Out Off Licences mainly targeting a female audience and to give a wine tasting presentation on their concepts.

Result: Elev8 won the task, as they made a clear presentation and targeted the audience given in the briefing.

Winner: Elev8

Brought into the boardroom: Barry and Michelle.

Who was fired: Barry, for lacking focus on the task and his unimpressive comments in the boardroom. Bill believed Barry had an issue with working with women, especially after him treating Michelle poorly on the task.[34]

Task: Final four candidates were interviewed by Bill Cullen's experts: David Bloch (MD at Brightwater Recruitment), Mairead Fleming (Brightwater Recruitment), Gavin Duffy and a well known psychiatrist.

Brought into the boardroom: All candidates

Who was fired first: Will, for delivering an unprofessional CV, and lacking a little too much in experience; despite his strong selling abilities.[35]

Who was fired second: Panos, for failing to compensate for his promising CV through lack of energy and plateauing performances over the tasks.[35]

After the success of the first series, TV3 announced that the show would return for another series. The second series started broadcasting on Monday, 21 September 2009. In addition to the main show, an official after show called The Apprentice: You're Fired! started this series. The winner of the 2009 series was Steve Rayner.[36]

There were fourteen candidates taking part in the second series and initially they were separated into two teams based on gender, Bill later switches around the personnel on these teams. The women chose the name Platinum, while the men chose the name Cúchulainn.

Team reshuffle: Maria, Lucinda, and Sam move to Cuchulainn. Setanta and Brendan move to Platinum.

Project managers: Breffny (Cúchulainn) and Setanta (Platinum)

Task: To develop and Pitch a media campaign for software company, The Big Red Book.

Result: Team Cúchulainn won the task, as officials from 'The Big Red Book' decided the winner.

Winner: Cúchulainn

Brought into the boardroom: Geraldine, Ruth, Setanta.

Who was fired: Setanta, for making bad decisions with the visual element of the campaign, not showing any leadership skills, and arguably for bringing Geraldine back in the boardroom instead of Brendan.

Team reshuffle: Geraldine moves to Cuchalinn. Stephen moves to Platinum.

Project managers: Geraldine (Cúchulainn) and Jennifer (Platinum)

Task: To take a run-down rental property of current equal rental value and transform them using products bought from B&Q. Both teams were given €2,500 to spend.

Winner: Cúchulainn

Brought into the boardroom: Jennifer, Brendan, Aoiffe.

Who was fired: Jennifer, for her bad management skills and for poor product choice. It has been argued that Brendan seemed better suited to lead this task instead of Jennifer to the extent where Bill criticised Brendan for not putting himself forward as team leader considering his expertise.

Who was fired: Sam, for making immature decisions in the tasks, and for not having the necessary experience.

Note: Like in the Irish Apprentice, in the UK version of Week 7 in Series 2, the surviving candidates in this week's firing line are the two finalists. Coincidentally, the candidate who is fired in this episode also has a name that begins with "Sam".

Result: The interviewers felt that Stephen Higgins was the most impressive candidate out of the remaining 3 in terms of entrepreneurship. However, his CV was filled with exaggerations, and he wasn't shown to be a trustworthy teammate due to his arrogance and his self-preserved agendas. Although he appeared as a tough guy, he didn't come across with a lot of self-esteem. Geraldine was thought to be the most likeable candidate who appeared with the most determination and a good capacity to learn and develop. The problems the interviewers found with Geraldine included her distracting profile in her CV which included spelling errors, and that she didn't seem capable enough to deliver results at the level Bill wanted due to her inexperience. Steve Rayner was described as a world-class salesman. Although he has exceptionally good skills selling face to face, it was argued about whether he could rise to a much more senior position in the field of sales. Steve couldn't prove this in his CV or in the interviews (particularly to David), but it was said that he did come across with the potential to do so. It was also said that hiring Steve would be a risk, because it was revealed that he had problems with alcohol and gambling addictions in his background.

Who was fired: Geraldine, because Bill thought she had much more to learn.

Task: Shoot and edit a 45-second TV commercial for "The Elysian" development in Cork City. The team who most impresses Michael O'Flynn (Chairman and Managing Director of said development) wins.

Result: Dynamo chosen by Michael O'Flynn.

Winner: Dynamo

Brought into the boardroom: Stuart (PM), Orla M, Shane

Who was fired: Orla M, for her continual lack of assertiveness, and for not being enough of a 'fighter' to work for Bill Cullen.[41]

Notes: Shane was called back to the boardroom by Stuart. However, Bill recognised Shane's efforts to stand up for Stuart during the presentation earlier in the day, and instantly sent him back to the house, thus rendering him safe.[41]

Who was fired: Shane, for admitting in the boardroom that his chances of winning the competition were "infinitely further away" than he thought and for believing that Bill was not going to hire him, which led to Bill firing him for lack of commitment to the competition.[45]

Result: There was very little in the difference of amounts raised for their charities with Brenda slightly ahead of Nicky in the end. Although Bill questioned Brenda's team management skills noting that some of her energy had dwindled in the final task - he felt compelled to hire her because of her constant performance throughout the series. Bill gave Nicky credit for being a great contestant and said that he had no doubt that she would be picked up by a company.

Who was hired: Brenda. Although Bill was impressed with both candidates, he wanted someone who would be able to 'hit the ground running'.